Today’s post covers another leader in the D-Day invasion -- General Omar Bradley, the commander of the First United States Army during the landings. He has some unique thoughts on leadership.

This year, I am doing a series on leaders and leadership in the European Theater of Operations (ETO) in World War II. This is 11th in the series. Check out the blog to see them all or go to the links at the bottom of this article to see the most recent ones.

General Omar Bradley

Omar Bradley (1893-1981) was born in Clark, Missouri. A talented baseball player, he attended and graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point as part of the Class of 1915. The West Point Class of 1915 is known as the “class the stars fell on” because 59 out of 164 members of the class attained the rank of general officer. General Dwight Eisenhower was also a member of the Class of 1915. After graduation, Omar Bradley married Mary Quayle in 1916. They had one daughter, Elizabeth.

Commissioned as an infantry officer, Omar Bradley was first sent to the Mexican border and then to guard copper mines in Montana during World War I. Between the wars he served as a ROTC instructor at South Dakota State University and twice as a math professor at West Point. At the outbreak of World War II, he was a Brigadier General (1 star) in charge of Fort Benning’s Infantry School. After command of the 82nd Infantry Division (before it transitioned to the 82nd Airborne Division) and 28th Infantry Division, he was selected as the II Corps (a Corps is approximately 40,000+ soldiers) commander and led it successfully in the North African and Sicilian Campaigns. The war correspondent Ernie Pyle nicknamed him “the G.I.’s general” for his modest style and the care he took for his troops.

Eisenhower sent a letter to George Marshall on Bradley’s performance early in the war, saying “There is very little I need to tell you about him [Bradley] because he is running absolutely true to form all the time. He has brains, a fine capacity for leadership and a thorough understanding of the requirements of modern battle. He has never caused me one moment of worry. He is perfectly capable of running an Army. He has the respect of all his associates, including all the British officers that have met him.” On the other hand, Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery was not a fan, saying that Brad was "dull, conscientious, dependable, and loyal” in his memoirs.

In October 1943 Bradley moved to London to work as commander in chief of the American ground forces preparing to invade France in the spring of 1944. For D-Day, Bradley was chosen to command the US First Army, which, alongside the British Second Army, commanded by Lieutenant-General Miles Dempsey, made up the 21st Army Group, commanded by Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery. Bradley oversaw the American landings at Utah and Omaha Beaches from the deck of the cruiser USS Augusta. Utah Beach was under the operational control of VII Corps — 4th Infantry Division would land on D-Day with the 90th Infantry Division following on D+1. Omaha Beach was under the control of V Corps — the Ranger Battalions, 29th Infantry Division, and 1st Infantry Division would lead the way there on D-Day. 2nd Infantry Division would follow on D+1. Behind Utah Beach, the 82nd Airborne Division and 101st Airborne Division would land and help open up routes to cut off the Cherbourg Peninsula.

On June 10, 1944, four days after the initial Normandy landings, Bradley and his staff debarked from the USS Augusta and established a headquarters ashore. Later in July, he planned Operation Cobra, the beginning of the breakout from the Normandy beachhead. Operation Cobra called for the use of strategic bombers using huge bomb loads to attack German defensive lines. After several postponements due to weather, the operation began on July 25, 1944. Bradley was horrified when 77 planes bombed short and dropped bombs on their own troops — killing Lieutenant General Lesley J. McNair and hundreds of others. However, the bombing created the hole in the German lines that the Allies needed to break out of Normandy and dash across northern France.

In August 1944, Bradley was promoted to lead the 12th US Army Group which eventually grew to 900,000 soldiers. He turned 1st US Army over to Courtney Hodges. He led the 12th US Army Group for the rest of the war. Bradley’s command style was interesting — instead of providing only broad operational direction, as the vague prewar American doctrine foresaw for army group commanders, Bradley exercised close control of his armies. He decided to assign broad missions to his principal subordinates and then carefully monitor operations, intervening on a selective basis when he thought necessary.

After the war, Bradley served as the head of the Veterans Administration, the Chief of Staff of the US Army, and the Chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff. He retired from active duty in 1953 and passed away in 1981.

Application

In October 1971, General Bradley gave an address on leadership to the US Army War College. Here is the link to the full speech. Here are the top ten takeaways from Bradley’s perspectives on leadership:

1. A good leader is one who causes or inspires others, staff or subordinate commanders, to do the job. His (or her) worth as a leader is measured by the achievements of the led.

2. A military unit is often judged by its leadership. Good leadership is essential to organized action where any group is involved. The one who commands — be he (or she) a military officer or a captain of industry — must project power, an energizing power which marshals and integrates the best efforts of his (or her) followers by supplying that certain something for which they look to him (or her) whether guidance, support, encouragement, example, or new ideas.

3. I would recommend to all commanders (leaders) that they inform members of their staffs that anyone who does not disagree once in a while with what is about to be done is of limited value.

4. An essential qualification of a good leader is the ability to recognize, select, and train junior leaders.

5. When one need not be a specialist in all phases of his (or her) job, he (or she) should have a proportionate degree of interest in every aspect of it.

6. A good leader must sometimes be stubborn… Armed with the courage of his (or her) convictions, he (or she) must often fight to defend them.

7. Both mental and physical energy are essential to successful leadership… A sick commander is of limited value… I had to relieve several senior commanders during World War II because of illness.

8. A leader must also possess imagination… Imagination is the quality that enables him (or her) to anticipate the train of consequences that would follow from his (or her) contemplated course of action.

9. Usually there is one best solution, but any good plan, boldly executed is better than indecision. There is usually more than one way to achieve results.

10. I am convinced nevertheless that leadership can be developed and improved by study and training. There is no better way to develop a person’s leadership than to give him (or her) a job involving responsibility and let him (or her) work it out.

Conclusion

I have featured several World War II leaders and their thoughts on leadership. Here are several so you can compare General Omar Bradley’s ideas to theirs:

Ike’s 8 Characteristics of Leadership

Dick Winters 10 Principles for Leadership Success

Leadership Lessons of Field Marshal Montgomery

General Jim Gavin Thoughts on Leadership

Interested in bringing your team to Leadership Experience that uses historic case studies, like Omar Bradley during D-Day to enhance your team’s leadership today? TFCG offers the D-Day, Market-Garden, and Battle of the Bulge Leadership Experiences in Europe. TFCG also offers the Eisenhower, Currahee!, the War in the Pacific Museum, and Pearl Harbor Leadership Experiences in the United States. Send me an email and we can start the discussion today about building better leaders in your organization using a historic Leadership Experience. Or click on one of the pictures to learn more.

In the meantime, go on the offensive and use General Omar Bradley’s 10 ideas on leadership to improve your personal leadership skills.